Is Obama Not Doing Enough?

The comments are beginning to pile up. It seems that an increasing number of commentators are agreeing that the economic stimulus plan being proposed by the incoming Obama administration is nowhere near large enough, and in some cases ineffective. Here’s one such comment from John Judis in The New Republic: Not Doing Enough

Let me repeat my position: the plan being put forward includes too much in tax cuts, which are far less effective in stimulating GDP growth than direct government spending, and is too small overall.

The gap between the economy’s actual activity and its potential activity is now estimated, by the Congressional Budget Office, to be a vast 8% to 9%. That means we need a stimulus of over $1 trillion, or more than $250 billion more than Obama is proposing.

I am baffled by the tepid performance Obama is putting on so far. he seems more concerned with satisfying GOP Senators than with dealing with the economy’s ills. He needs to recall that he swept into power on the back of national disgruntlement with those self same GOP Senators and there erstwhile leader George Bush. The economy’s decline is a repudiation of all the GOP policies and ideas. So why do we need to pander to a bunch of Senators whose ideas are patently useless? I don’t know. But apparently Obama thinks he needs to do just that.

This does not augur well for the future and such thorny issues as health care.